Intellectual Dishonesty

Tuesday

Feb 25, 2014 at 12:01 AMFeb 25, 2014 at 2:17 PM

Now that Nat Hentoff and I have been firmly placed in the constellation of the great right wing conspiracy, I should note that one of the things that has been bugging both Nat and I (who, by the way, share a middle name, obviously another sign of our link to the Koch Brothers), is a the relatively new lack of intellectual honesty by Barry’s kool aid drinkers. As I have noted, I’ve been involved in a a study of mid century political philosophy. One thing that strikes me about that era, unlike today’s storm troopers for Barry, is that back then the thinkers at least admitted that they understood what their intellectual opponents believed, if only to attack the position.

so our beloved paper runs a column by E.J. Dione the other day which provides a case in point of intellectual dishonesty from the Kool Aid Krowd. Discussing one of Barry’s unconstitutional executive power grabs, Dione writes:

“Can anyone be upset that he secured $750 million in commitments from tech companies to bring high-speed Internet to more classrooms? He’s combining that with $2 billion from service fees paid to the Federal Communications Commission to connect 15,000 schools and 20 million students. Who could oppose this? Perhaps those who think he’ll deploy this new capacity to pump left-wing propaganda to impressionable young people.”

Well, yeah. Like all of those people who don’t think that the federal government should have anything to do with the education, not just out of fear of “left-wing propaganda” but out of the belief that the Constitution, under the 10th Amendment, left education of the states. And then we can get to the fact that Nat and I, rabid right wingers both, are equally concerned that the same tools that can pump out “left wing propaganda” today will be pumping out right wing propaganda tomorrow.

Dione gets this. Its not a new concept that many many people of both stripes don’t like the fed involved in education, nor is it a new concept that federal policy can shift with the president’s party, which very much leads to a situation in which a Republican president, by executive fiat, could equally impose his own agenda on the most liberal school in Vermont. But for Dione to ignore this, and to belittle what is a bipartisan concern, demonstrates the moral and ethical bankruptcy of this Regime and its apologists.

Rob Meltzer

Now that Nat Hentoff and I have been firmly placed in the constellation of the great right wing conspiracy, I should note that one of the things that has been bugging both Nat and I (who, by the way, share a middle name, obviously another sign of our link to the Koch Brothers), is a the relatively new lack of intellectual honesty by Barry’s kool aid drinkers. As I have noted, I’ve been involved in a a study of mid century political philosophy. One thing that strikes me about that era, unlike today’s storm troopers for Barry, is that back then the thinkers at least admitted that they understood what their intellectual opponents believed, if only to attack the position.

so our beloved paper runs a column by E.J. Dione the other day which provides a case in point of intellectual dishonesty from the Kool Aid Krowd. Discussing one of Barry’s unconstitutional executive power grabs, Dione writes:

“Can anyone be upset that he secured $750 million in commitments from tech companies to bring high-speed Internet to more classrooms? He’s combining that with $2 billion from service fees paid to the Federal Communications Commission to connect 15,000 schools and 20 million students. Who could oppose this? Perhaps those who think he’ll deploy this new capacity to pump left-wing propaganda to impressionable young people.”

Well, yeah. Like all of those people who don’t think that the federal government should have anything to do with the education, not just out of fear of “left-wing propaganda” but out of the belief that the Constitution, under the 10th Amendment, left education of the states. And then we can get to the fact that Nat and I, rabid right wingers both, are equally concerned that the same tools that can pump out “left wing propaganda” today will be pumping out right wing propaganda tomorrow.

Dione gets this. Its not a new concept that many many people of both stripes don’t like the fed involved in education, nor is it a new concept that federal policy can shift with the president’s party, which very much leads to a situation in which a Republican president, by executive fiat, could equally impose his own agenda on the most liberal school in Vermont. But for Dione to ignore this, and to belittle what is a bipartisan concern, demonstrates the moral and ethical bankruptcy of this Regime and its apologists.